The Safavids - Epic Music

Music by Farya Faraji, including improvisations by Soheil Saadat and Nayan Sahihi. Duduk by ‪@AliFarbodnia‬ setar and tar by Siavosh Karami, tanboor by Soheil Saadat, vocals by Ali Reza Berenjan and Farya Faraji, and kamanche by Nayan Sahihi.

Please note that this isn't reconstructed era music, this is modern Iranian and Azerbaijani music with a historical theme.

I wanted to delve into the rich subject of the Safavid dynasty which is commonly seen as the beginning of modern Iranian history, and whose lasting effects include the conversion of Iran to a Shiite Muslim country, and its consolidation as one of the major gunpowder-based powers in the region. The Safavids were a Turkic speaking dynasty whose dialect was an early form of the modern Azerbaijani language. They came to power in 16th century Iran under the rule of Shah Ismail I.

Ismail I was a renowned poet under the pen name of Khatayi. As the leader of the Qizilbash, a faction of Shiite, Turkic Sufi militant group, he took power in Iran, and solidified it as the eastern, Shiite adversary of the Sunni Ottoman empire for centuries to come.

The music is primarily based in the common, shared musical heritage of Iranian and Azerbaijani musical forms, with the tar and kamanche being central in both traditions. An Iranian setar and tanbour also accompany the piece, as well as a duduk, an instrument called the mey by Azerbaijanis, and commonly played both in Azerbaijan as well by the Azeris of Iran. A Sufi aesthetic also shapes the central component of the music's rhythm, with the rythmic breaths being typical of Zikr: Sufi musical gatherings were rhythm is used to induce the mystics into a trance believed to bring them closer to the divine. The kurdish tanboor adds to the mystical, Sufi aesthetic of the song, being closely associated with Kurdish Sufis.

The main melody is in the mode of Isfahan, equivalent to the Western harmonic minor, with the kamanche improv in the middle by Nayan Sahihi being in Segah.

The lyrics are in the Azerbaijani and Persian languages.

Azerbaijani lyrics:
Allah Allah din gaziler
Gaziler deyin şah menem
Karşu gelün secde kılun
Gaziler deyin şah menem

Uçmakta tuti kuşuyam
Ağır leşker er başıyam
Men sufiler yoldaşıyam
Gaziler deyin şah menem

Ne yerd'ekersen biterim
Handa çağırsan yeterim
Sufiler elin dutarım
Gaziler deyin şah menem

Mansur ile darda idim
Halil ile narda idim
Musa ile Tur'da idim
Gaziler deyin şah menem

Tahkıyk ile şahı tanun
Nevruz edin şaha yetün
Hey gaziler secde kılun
Gaziler deyin şah menem

Kırmızı taclu boz atlu
Ağır leşkeri nisbetlü
Yusuf Peygamber sıfatlu
Gaziler deyin şah menem

Hatai'yem al atluyam
Sözü şekerden datluyam
Murtaza Ali zatluyam
Gaziler deyin şah menem

Persian lyrics:
Manam Jamshid, manam Khosrow,
Manam Rostam o Fereydunam,
Name Ali'st, bar labanam,
Pir-e davazda emamam,

Sharabe man, khoone Yazid,
Cho Rostam khoone div ra pashid,
Manam shahe Ghezelbashian,
Manam Shahanshaye Iran

Translation of the Persian text:
I am Jamshid, I am Khosrow,
I am Rostam and Fereydun,
The name of Ali is on my lips,
I am the Pir of the Twelve Imams,

My wine is the blood of Yazid,
As Rostam shed the blood of the div,
I am the King of the Qizilbash,
I am the King of Kings of Iran

The Persian lyrics are sentiments written down by Ismail. Present here is Shiite Islamic imagery; such as the emphasis on the Twelve Imams, a belief specific to Shia Islam which proclaims that succession to the prophet Muhammad is passed every era through a divinely appointed Imam of which there will be twelve, and hostility towards Yazid as a figure of evil due to his killing of Imam Hussein, one of the central figures of Shia Islam. This Shiite Islamic imagery is coupled closely with emphasis on native, pre-Islamic Iranian cultural elements such as the Zoroastrian mythology of Rostam, Jamshid, Fereydun, etc, which remain to this day central to Iranian identity.

This shows the highly multidimensional nature of the Safavid Empire as an Iranian empire where native, pre-Islamic Iranian identity played a fundamental part in its identity, ruled by a Turkic speaking dynasty, and shaped by a newly consolidated Shia Islam that would come to define Iran in opposition to much of the rest of the Islamic world.

The Azerbaijani lyrics are a poem by Shah Ismail himself, however as with all poems of the era, an English translation is very difficult to offer, so I would rather prefer that someone with a better grasp of Azerbaijani than me write down the translation. The general gist of the poem is Ismail's affirmation of himself as the king, representative of the Imams and defender of the ideals of Sufism, the Qizilbash, and Shiite Islam.